


I'm Your Boogeyman

by Miah_Arthur



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Trouble, Whump, bring your own subtext
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-29
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-22 08:46:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2501681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miah_Arthur/pseuds/Miah_Arthur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A monster stalks and tortures people in their dreams for days before they disappear, only to reappear later suffering sudden cardiac arrest. For a month there are no leads and no hope, until first Nathan and then Duke begin having the dream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set at an unspecified point in early season 3
> 
> Thanks to Caddy-shack for help with horror movie tropes
> 
> Thanks to Roseveare11 for beta reading
> 
> Picture prompts from the Spook Me Ficathon were made by Jose Manzanedo and James Flaxman

 

 

# I'm Your Boogeyman

 

[](http://s879.photobucket.com/user/spook_me/media/Spook%20Me%20Anything%20Goes/thing_in_the_road__final_version__by_manzanedo-d75rok8_zps34770684.jpg.html)  


 

### Chapter One

 

Nathan opened his eyes. Everything was silent. He wasn't in his bed, or even his house. There was no moon, no stars, no source of light at all that he could find, but somehow he could still see. The gloom and fog pressed in around him, heavy, suffocating, dampening his clothes and making them cling to him. He shivered with the cold. 

He looked down and verified visually what he was sensing. He was sitting on the yellow line of a hard asphalt road. Pebbles pressed sharply into his hand where he propped himself up. Everything finally clicked into place. He was dreaming. He always felt in his dreams.

There was no sound at all. He could see the fog swirling, leaves scuttling by him, feel the breeze on his cheeks, but the world was on mute. A whispering, rustling sound fluttered at his ears. He turned to look, desperate to hear something, anything. His ears had begun playing tricks on him last time. Something shifted in the fog. The monster! It had chased him through the woods the night before, a hide and seek with the sort of certainty that only comes in dreams, that if it caught him it would kill him horribly. It hadn't disappointed.

A black cloud rushed toward him. A demonic giant figure clothed only in the swirling darkness, formed from the darkness itself, glared at him with glowing eyes. He scrambled to his feet and ran. The terrain at his feet flashed by. He had never run so hard, and his lungs ached with the exertion. But the scenery crawled by. The slow thumping of the monster's feet came closer and closer. He looked frantically over his shoulder. The monster was right behind him. Its head was thrown back in malevolent laughter. The monster was the only thing he could hear in this place. It reached one clawed, insubstantial looking hand out toward him. 

He turned to face it, staggering backward until he tripped over nothing. The hand stopped moving, but the claw elongated. Its touch pinned him into place with agony. He screamed as the claw penetrated his skin, pushed through him, came out his back. Even his own voice was silenced in his ears. The monster raised its arm, lifting Nathan up from the road. He tried to grasp the arm, anything to relieve all his weight hanging on that claw, but his hands passed through like it truly was formed from fog. It flicked its wrist and Nathan flew through the air. The claw left his stomach with a sucking sensation and blood sprayed the air between them.

Nathan landed and rolled along the road. He pressed one arm across his belly, and struggled against the pain to stand. He couldn't force himself fully upright. His body refused to cooperate. A few shambling steps listening to the monster's measured footfalls were all he managed. 

The giant clawed hand wrapped around the back of his neck, and lifted him up again. It marched to the edge of the cliff that Nathan hadn't even realized they were on, held him over the edge and dropped him.

Nathan bolted out of his bed. He was breathing rapidly, his heart beating hard enough that he could hear the blood pounding through his ears. He frantically checked his stomach for injuries, but saw only sweat. He went to the bathroom and stared into the mirror. His eyes were wide, panicked. There was a definite buzz at the back of his brain that told him he was in a full blown adrenaline rush.

He stripped out of his pajama bottoms and started the shower. The non-slip rubber ducky sticker with the temperature sensitive lines turned white for warm, but not purple for too hot. He waited a few seconds to be sure, but they stayed white. He needed to have a quick shower, get dressed and get food started before the shakes hit him. 

He didn't want to think about what happened the third night after these dreams started, but he still believed the theory that the Troubled person had been caught in their own Trouble. If he was taken, he'd be the first Trouble solver on the scene. Maybe no one else would die from this one.

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

 

### Chapter 2

 

Duke was taking a moment to wipe the bar down. The _Grey Gull_ was busy today, especially now at the lunch hour. He had a full crew of wait staff and cooks working. It was the first big crowd he'd had in nearly a week to really justify the full crew. Even some of his regulars had been avoiding the place. It was cleaner than it had ever been as a result. Trim boards had been scrubbed, even the fridges had been pulled out and had the coils cleaned. His staff was as glad as he was to see a crowd. 

A loud pop overrode the noise of the crowd. People screamed and ran for the doors. Duke began a silent countdown. Thirty seconds. This Trouble had been going on for over a month. They knew what was about to happen. Duke pulled the portable defibrillator from under the counter, along with gloves and a CPR mask. He turned it on and set it to charge. He'd bought it after the second person died from this Trouble in his bar. 

He pulled the gloves on. The main room of the bar had cleared out entirely. He turned to Tracy, and started, "Dial 911--"

A man appeared from thin air. He was wearing boxers and nothing else. His hands were raised over his head as if he was warding off a blow. He collapsed to the ground. 

Duke hurried around the bar to him. He placed the first pad on the man's back, and then rolled the guy over. He took in the sweat and ashen complexion while he was putting the pad on the guy's chest. A wild, sketchy heart beat pattern appeared on the machine's screen. Duke checked just to be sure, then put the CPR barrier on the man and breathed once. The defibrillator beeped that it recommended a shock. Duke pulled away from the man and pressed the button. 

The screen showed a rapid, but more normal regular looking heart rate, and the machine informed him that he should call for paramedics immediately, and continue breathing if his patient wasn't. The man wasn't, so Duke continued giving him breaths. Time seemed to stretch out to infinity as he continued. 

Someone grabbed his shoulders and pulled him away. He fell on his butt under a table. After a few deep gasping breaths, it seemed that time and the rest of the world snapped into being again. Paramedics were preparing to move the man, his wait staff were behind the bar in various states of panic and trauma. His patrons were milling around outside. Food was getting cold and beer was getting warm on the tables around him. 

He needed to calm his staff and patrons and get things moving again before he lost even more business over this Trouble, but he couldn't manage any of it right now. Tracy was moving toward him looking concerned. He jumped to his feet and made a quick retreat to the deck under Audrey's stairs, where he could pace off some of the energy thrumming through him. 

Tracy waited a minute, until after the ambulance's siren had faded into the distance, to come out. He still hadn't calmed down. This one had a heartbeat. Would it last to the hospital? Would the man recover? If he had bought the AED after the first one would the second have lived? His thoughts were racing, chasing after one another through his mind. 

Tracy caught his eye and said, "Don't worry, I'll handle it in there."

Duke nodded. When the door banged shut behind her, he stopped pacing. The surge of energy was leaving him and his legs felt like wet noodles. He sat down on the bench, braced in the corner, and pulled his knees up. Just a few minutes and then he'd be ready to go back and run his bar like people didn't keep appearing from thin air only to drop dead in front of him.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

 

### Chapter 3

 

Nathan arrived at the _Grey Gull_ about the same time as the ambulance. He and Parker got tangled up in crowd control outside, making sure there was a clear path for the paramedics on the way in, and then on the way back out. He was surprised to see that they were using a bag to breathe for the man, but he otherwise seemed very much alive.

Nathan helped usher everyone back inside, reminding them that even if they were too rattled to stay, they needed to settle their tabs. The last grumbling patron, Sam Fullman, shuffled his way inside. Nathan reminded himself to keep an eye on that one. He'd been awfully eager at the idea of abandoning his bill, and it reminded Nathan of all those hot checks Fullman had written the year before. 

Duke was nowhere to be seen inside the bar. That surprised Nathan a bit. Duke had taken it hard when Barbara Fritz had died here a few days ago, but this man had rolled out alive. Duke should be bouncing around all triumphant. Tracy waved and pointed toward the side deck. Leaving Parker to supervise Sam Fullman, and a few other fractious patrons, Nathan slipped out the door.

Duke was staring out toward the water with his knees pulled up. Nathan sat down beside him, and waited. 

"They said he has a good chance," Duke said, still staring.

"Yeah."

"When is this one going to end? It's been a month." 

Nathan decided that was more exhaustion than anger coloring Duke's voice. He knew Duke had been sleeping in the _Gull_ since Barbara Fritz had appeared just as he was arriving. It had taken time to get inside and start to try to save her. If one had been saved then maybe the rest weren't without hope, although if he was fast enough solving this then Duke wouldn't have to do this again.

"I don't know." Nathan huffed. "There's not much to go on. Nightmares, then they're just gone."

"Until they aren't."

Nathan took a good look at Duke before saying, "You do remember that you just saved a guy's life, right?"

Duke finally uncurled enough to put his feet on the ground. He ran his hand through his hair. "I know. It's just the come down." He brought his hand down like he was going to put it on Nathan's shoulder, but stopped before touching. "Who was he?"

"I didn't recognize him with the mask over his face." It wasn't Angus Doherty, the only victim so far that he had known prior to the case. Angus reappearing dead, and then having to inform Hamish, knowing the two only had each other, was something he'd been dreading.

Duke stood up and grinned. Nathan wasn't fooled by it. "Well, guess that's more than enough time for self-indulgence. I've got a business to run." He took a step toward the door.

If he said nothing and disappeared tomorrow, then Duke and Parker would just waste time searching for him. He grabbed Duke's arm. "Wait."

Duke looked at him with concern. Nathan sighed. "I've had the nightmare."

"What? How many times?"

" _Twice_."

"Why didn't you say something?"

"I just did."

Nathan didn't struggle when Duke grabbed him by the shoulders. "No, Nate. This is bad. What if that had been you the first time? What if nothing works and you die, because I couldn't save you?"

"Those people did not die because you failed. They were already dead. You didn't kill them." 

"No." Duke paced across the deck then turned and pointed at Nathan. "No. You're going to figure this out _today_. Two out of three, Nathan. Two out of three people in sudden cardiac arrest don't respond to the shock." He resumed pacing.

"Duke."

"And that's assuming you land here. If it's somewhere else and just CPR, you've got seven percent chance."

Nathan blocked Duke's path. "Duke! Listen!"

Duke stopped abruptly. 

"I still think the Troubled person is wherever it is people disappear to. Someone who knows about the Troubles and how to deal with them needs to be there. This is good. Maybe we can finally stop this."

Duke thunked the bench against the wall as he sat down. He scrubbed his hands through his hair, then looked up at Nathan. "Have you told Audrey?"

 

* * *

 

"I'm not going to be able to fall asleep with the two of you staring at me," Nathan said. _Just being in Parker's bed with the two of them planning on watching me sleep is unsettling enough. At least if the pattern holds no one will be returned tonight._

Duke still wasn't happy with this plan, and had been crowding, poking, and generally annoying Nathan into staying awake for the last hour. "Maybe we don't really want you to fall asleep."

Nathan sighed, and looked to Parker for help. Duke's pestering was succeeding. She nodded and pulled Duke to the other side of the room. Nathan closed his eyes and tried not to listen to their whispered argument. Being tired was an exercise in subtlety for him, much like everything else with his body. Part of it was just knowing that he hadn't had an adequate amount of sleep in the last forty-eight hours, but there was a mental sluggishness, a slight blurring of his vision, if he had been on his feet he would have noted a loss of coordination and strength. He should have dropped off to sleep the second his head hit the pillow, but Duke was a damned effective nuisance when he wanted to be. Some part of him dreaded possibly facing that monster again, facing that pain again. Ironically, by being such a pain in the ass, Duke was also distracting him from that dread.

The sounds from the other end of the room suddenly turned to silence. Even the faint sounds of rustling cloth and the gentle rolling of the ocean outside had disappeared. It was unnerving. 

He was on his back on something hard. A rock was digging into his shoulder painfully. His eyes snapped open. He was in the dream. He stood up quickly. He didn't want to be out in the open when the shadow and fog monster appeared again. His stomach muscles clenched with the remembered pain, and he rubbed a hand across the injury site absently. 

He wasn't on the lonely stretch of road hugging a cliff like he had been in the second dream. He was in the middle of a town. It was Haven. Nathan recognized Rosemary's bakery and other landmarks, but everything looked decayed like the town had been abandoned for years. Fog shrouded the distance. It dampened his clothes again, making them cling to him, and he couldn't keep from shivering. Maybe he should have kept his jacket on, too. At least he had worn his shoes, so he didn't have to deal with aching, tender feet this time

The monster had come from wide open areas in both his previous dreams, so he moved toward the bakery. Maybe it wouldn't help at all, but it was better than standing here waiting for it to kill him again. The light was the same as before. No noticeable source. Dim, but still enough to basically see his surroundings. The kind of light present in movies when it was supposed to be dark in the scene, but the audience needed to see the actors' faces. He suddenly wondered who needed to see him, and moved a little faster toward the bakery.

At least this time, there was no effect of him running faster and faster while the area around him stayed still. Just as he reached the sidewalk, the bakery door opened. A girl peeked out. She glanced furtively up and down the street, and then spoke‒the first sounds Nathan had heard in this dream.

"Hurry. It won't come inside. Too big." She opened the door and smiled at him.

Nathan took a step toward her, but then stopped. The only other thing he had heard in these dreams was the monster. Everything else was on mute. He wanted to get off the street, away from the kind of pain the monster could inflict, but he hesitated.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Nona. Nona Rutledge." She grabbed his arm and pulled on him. He didn't budge.

"You were in the first wave of people that disappeared. You've been here a long time. How?"

"Because I stayed off the street, silly. Come on!"

Nathan pulled his arm free from her grasp. Her expression suddenly turned dark. "You are coming with me." 

Nathan heard the first footfall of the monster in the distance behind him. "You're causing this."

Her expression turned back to sweetness. "I'm lonely. Come play with me. It's safe inside."

Nathan glanced behind him. The monster was standing still at a distance. He looked at the girl again. The expression was sweet, but the eyes were hard, and he didn't doubt that that flash of anger would be back. He turned and ran. The footsteps sounded behind him, faster than they had been in his other dreams, but he still had freedom of movement, and skidded to a stop in front of the hardware store a couple of doors down from the bakery before the monster got to him.

He yanked the door open, darted inside, and then pulled the door shut behind him. Movement behind him caught his eye and he whirled to face the new threat. His heart was pounding and his breath felt harsh on his throat as he gasped it in. 

A man and woman were standing behind a barricade of overturned shelves. Nathan recognized them as Henry Morris and Lilac Summer Storm. No one ever forgot the name her parents had saddled her with. Lilac was startling every time the monster made a louder sound. Morris' mouth was moving, but Nathan still couldn't hear anything except the monster. 

Nathan drifted closer, not sure if he was welcome or not, since Morris was frowning. The monster rammed the door hard enough that Nathan felt the vibrations of the storefront through the soles of his feet. He spun back to face the door, his heart rate spiking again. He took several shaky steps backward. Something jabbed him in the back and he nearly lost his balance jumping to face that threat. 

Henry Morris's mouth was moving again. He stared at Nathan, then something seemed to click, because his expression lit up. He held his arms up, hands palm out to Nathan, then waved Nathan closer.

Nathan returned the non-threatening pose, then put his arms higher up over his head so that his t-shirt was pulled up away from the band of his jeans, and he made a slow turn. The sounds of the monster had faded, and he was starting to calm down a bit.

When he was again facing Morris and Lilac she motioned for him to put his hands down and come on closer. Now that the monster sounds were fading into the background, she appeared to be much calmer. Morris pulled a section of the shelving back and let him join them inside. Morris stood in front of him, mouth moving slowly. Nathan shook his head. He didn't read lips. Morris tried sign language next, or at least Nathan thought those hand movements might be sign language. He shook his head again.

An unexpected tap on his shoulder had him jumping and pushing his back against the wall. A third person, Angus, had come from the store room and was now drawn back, looking chagrined and more than a little worried. Nathan pulled away from the wall and made himself stand a little more relaxed. He saw Lilac talking to Mr. Doherty and the man shaking his head in disbelief. 

Nathan had been out to the farm of Hamish Stewart and Angus several times since the food poisoning Trouble. He and the older men had hit it off when Nathan found that they shared similar crafting hobbies. Angus turned back to him, looking apologetic, and Nathan smiled and opened his arms. Angus was a hugger. He'd even managed to get past Nathan's defenses with it.

Angus smiled with relief and gave Nathan a quick hug. It was familiar and foreign at the same time. He hadn't felt something like that in years. There was comfort in the familiarity of a friend, but feeling it was still unsettling. Lilac appeared with a white board and a marker. She was erasing a note about a discount on weather sealant.

[Can't hear anything?] she wrote.

Nathan took the marker. [Can hear the monster and Nona Rutledge. Nothing else.]

The three shared a look. [Nona is a monster.] Lilac wrote. [Henry and I escaped when she fell asleep. Henry got to Angus before she did. No one else has made it out.]

Nathan frowned. "What did she do?" He wasn't entirely sure whether they would hear him, but they clearly did.

Lilac and Morris both shuddered. [She wants to 'play'. Horrible little tea parties and dolls. Things a much younger girl would like. If you don't follow her script…]

Henry lifted his shirt to reveal a large makeshift bandage wrapped around his ribs. Blood was beginning to spot through the cloth in places. He nodded at Lilac to continue.

[She creates a smaller monster. Huge mouth, teeth, eyes. Body just rags floating. Claws.] She stopped writing and put her free hand to her mouth. A motion like she was sobbing shook her. Morris wrapped an arm around her shoulders. After a few minutes she leaned away and he released her. 

"She hasn't come after you down here?"

They all shook their heads. Henry took the marker. [It was like a temper tantrum. Over quickly. It cut me once, then she was back to that smile. Never so glad as when she fell asleep.]

[Farrell Bishop arrived after Angus, before you. We saw him go in the bakery. Couldn't get to him in time, because the monster appeared almost the same time as Farrell. The little one dragged him back out later. The screams.] Lilac's hand shook violently as she tried to finish writing the sentence. Henry took the marker and board from her and drew her into an embrace. 

By the way her shoulders were shaking, Nathan guessed that she was sobbing loudly. Angus waved Nathan toward the back room. Nathan followed him up the stairs in the back to the apartment above the shop. The smell of something cooking wafted down to Nathan as soon as he started up the stairs and he felt his stomach rumble at him. The feeling was disconcerting enough that he put his hand against it and felt the vibration through his fingers. He saw Angus laugh and wave him toward a bar stool as soon as they were through the door at the top.

As Nathan ate, Angus rummaged through drawers until he found a pen and small notebook. [Is Farrell dead?]

Nathan shook his head. "But five others are. Heart attack as soon as they reappear. Duke Crocker managed to shock Farrell's heart back into beating."

Angus gave him a raised eyebrow.

"Half the people that reappeared showed up in the _Grey Gull_. Duke bought one of those portable defibrillators after the the second one."

[How are you going to stop her?]

"I don't know, but I'll think of something."

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

 

### Chapter 4

 

"Duke! Duke! Wake up!"

Duke shot up, knocking Audrey away from the couch. His hands flew to his throat and then he patted down his limbs the demon had shredded. Realizing why he was on a couch in Audrey's room, Duke stopped and looked over at her bed. It was empty. Audrey was watching him with sad, concerned eyes. 

"Nathan?" It was possible he was just in the bathroom, right?

She shook her head. "He's gone, Duke. I was staring right at him, and he just disappeared. No warning, no fading out, just gone."

"I need to go." She started to protest, but he pointed toward the bathroom and she nodded. He heard her starting a pot of coffee as he closed the door. 

He pulled his shirt off, examined his arms and flexed his fingers. The dream had felt so real. There was still a powerful ache in his arms where the claws had shredded through muscles. There wasn't a mark on his throat, but he could still feel the sensation of the monster's teeth sinking in and tearing free. Blood had sprayed over everything, but he had woken just before dying. 

Was that what happened to people? The old story that if you died in your dreams, then you died in real life? All those people had been trapped in the dream world and then died, being returned only to have their hearts stop. Duke splashed water on his face. Not ever sleeping again was looking like a viable option about now. 

A tentative knock on the door reminded him that he'd been in here too long. He put his shirt back on and opened the door. Audrey presented him with a cup of coffee. They sat on the couch, quiet at first, thinking about Nathan, but as the sun rose it evolved into another rehashing of all the theories they had considered and rejected over the last month. 

By seven, Duke was serving breakfast in the _Gull_. Audrey was ready to head back out, reinterview victims' families, harass Vince and Dave, and hope that Farrell Bishop would wake up. "Come with me, Duke. You need a break from this place," she wheedled one last time.

"I can't leave, Audrey. What if Nathan shows up while I'm gone?"

"He'll be fine, Duke. He can do this," she said before she left. Duke started a pot of extra strong coffee, and set about his day running the _Gull_. It was a slow day‒not surprising after yesterday‒and by early afternoon, he was dragging. He'd only gotten an hour or two of sleep the night before. After the day he had had and then the dream and not sleeping, he wasn't surprised when he opened his eyes and saw the horror movie reject scene around him.

He wasn't sticking around gawking this time. No way. He was on a stretch of highway leading in to Haven. High bluff reaching up above the road on one side and sheer drop on the other side. He knew where he was, and it was a few miles before there was any way off the road. 

He hadn't moved more than a few steps when he heard the the whirl of wind that he knew meant the fog was changing into the monster. He didn't turn to look at it, just started running. The faster his feet moved, the slower he went. The monster struck from behind, sending him sprawling across the pavement. 

Duke curled up. He knew from the first dream that he couldn't touch the monster. It wrapped its claws around his ankle and jerked him off the ground. It lifted until Duke's face was almost level with its. He braced himself mentally for it rip his throat out again, but it only laughed. It walked a few feet toward the edge of the cliff and Duke thought it was about to throw him over. 

It stopped on the edge of the road, and laughed again. Then it whipped him around. His hip dislocated a moment before he slammed into the pavement back first. He tried to scream, but couldn't pull in air. Foamy blood bubbled up from somewhere and filled his mouth. The monster stood there, still laughing while Duke got more and more panicked by his inability to get air. 

He was flying through the air again, the ground rushing up at him through the spots in his vision, when he landed on the floor behind the bar of the _Grey Gull_. He lay there, stunned, just pulling air into lungs that worked again. 

Tracy leaned over the bar looking worried. "You okay?"

Duke nodded, still feeling shaky. He gave a weak smile and chuckle as he got to his feet. "Dozed off."

"Yeah, you've been asleep on the stool for an hour."

Duke checked the _Gull_ 's interior. It was empty. "Where is everyone?"

"It's three. I would have woken you anyway. Regulars about to start coming in."

"I'm going to go out on the deck. Get some fresh air."

She didn't suggest that he should go home and get some sleep. He liked that about her. She understood the Troubles and didn't ask a lot of questions about his sometimes strange habits. He called Audrey. She had come up with nothing on the dream Trouble, and had been forced to deal with a string of incidents of fish appearing out of nowhere to slap someone in the face. It had just been funny at first, but now the fish were getting bigger and not stopping after one solid smack on the cheek.

Duke sighed. Only in Haven. He went back inside and business finally picked up enough to keep him awake. Audrey didn't drag in until near closing time, bedraggled and smelling like old fish. Duke opened his mouth to comment as she was headed up to her apartment, but she threatened to find a fish to smack _him_ with, so he dropped it. 

She reappeared as he was locking up. She was wearing sweats and a t-shirt and looked a lot calmer than she had earlier. She patted Duke on the arm and assured him again that this would be over soon. Nathan would figure it out. 

He poured her a drink and went about his business of closing things up. She looked more glum the longer she sat there, like maybe she was having the same doubts Duke was. She was the one who really fixed the Troubled. It had to grate on her that this time she couldn't even try, locked out by the thing that normally made her perfect for the job.

It took longer than usual to close up with the occasional stumble and dropping things that he thought he had a tight grip on. He wasn't going to be able to stay awake much longer, no matter how much coffee he drank.

When she was ready for another one, he leaned on the bar and sipped on another cup of coffee. It had to help a little, right?

"I thought he'd have it fixed by now, you know?" she finally said.

"Well, maybe I can help him out."

"What? No, Duke. You've got another day before you get to the third dream. Nathan will figure this out."

"Yeah, about that." he paused and she gave him a look that said he better spit it out. "I'd have another day if I hadn't fallen asleep here this afternoon."

"You just have to stay awake a little longer. Give Nathan a chance to fix this."

"I wish Farrell had been able to tell us what to expect. If the third time is anything like the first two…" Duke shifted uncomfortably, remembering how it felt to choke on his own blood. "Then there is nothing I can help with."

"What happened?"

"It killed me. Violently. It hurt. There is one thing though. I was on the stretch of road near Tuwiuwok Bluff. Nathan mentioned being there during his second dream."

"And you were both in the woods the first time."

Duke nodded. "I could see the lights from a house in the distance. I just thought it was a random horror setting, but maybe...maybe it was real."

"The road near the point is one of the main routes into Haven. If we go on the assumption that the house in the woods is further out, where are we talking?" Audrey had perked up with the new line of thought on the case.

"Humphry Ridge is closest. Old Haven family, but they all died out years ago. The property was subdivided, sold to several families‒nine, ten, maybe? Still spread pretty thin over the area. There are other little community clusters further out, too." 

"The first several disappearances were outside of town. We plotted them, but couldn't find a pattern other than they were generally drifting toward the town."

"So this doesn't help at all." Duke yawned. His eyes were dry and gritty. The coffee was churning in his stomach. 

"We've looked at the ones who disappeared first again and again. None of their families admit to being Troubled. Vince and Dave have no records of any of them having a Trouble remotely like this." 

Audrey stopped talking and after a few seconds, Duke noticed that she was staring at him. 

He smiled at her. "What? Have I got something in my teeth?" 

She chuckled. "No. You're going to have to sleep."

Duke's smile faded. "Yeah."

"The Troubles don't affect me. Maybe if I'm touching you when you fall asleep, it won't be able to affect you?"

"Are you offering to go to bed with me?" Duke tried to make it as suggestive as possible.

Audrey tsked at him, and shook her head. "That charming rogue thing just doesn't work as well when you're half asleep and slurring your words, but I _am_ suggesting that we go upstairs and I hold your hand while you get some sleep."

"Aww, that's so much less fun."

"No one will be returned while it's after you, tonight." She grabbed his arm mock severely and pulled him toward the door. "Come on, Casanova. It's time I finally got you into bed. "

_If only she would say that when she wasn't trying to stop a Trouble from making me disappear_. Duke let her lead him up the stairs. He took his shoes off, and crawled into the bed. It felt so good to be somewhere comfortable. He'd been using a sleeping bag on the floor of the Gull for nearly a week, and then slept a little on Audrey's couch the night before. The bed felt heavenly.

He almost dozed off before Audrey sat on the bed with him. She scooted up and leaned against the wall. He raised a hand toward her and she caught it with both of hers. 

"Duke?"

"Hmm?"

"If it does take you, be careful."

"Uh huh."

He drifted toward sleep, but then jerked awake. He looked up at her blearily. "Promise you'll make someone keep watch at the _Gull_."

Audrey brushed one hand across his cheek. "Of course I will. I'll watch. You can sleep now."

He nodded once and closed his eyes again.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

 

 

### Chapter 5

 

Nathan had tried to get to the bakery once already. He'd only barely made it back to the hardware store. For now, he had resigned himself to gathering information. He started with something that had been nagging at him since he arrived.

He nodded toward Henry, "You and Lilac weren't this close before. We couldn't find any obvious links between the two of you at all."

Lilac smiled shyly, but it was Henry who wrote [No, we weren't. Same coffee shop. Same time every day. I hadn't asked her out yet. Going to next day.]

"Lilac was the next to disappear."

She nodded. Angus started scribbling on the pad he'd found earlier. [I planned to call you next morning. Help on a project.]

This was sounding an awful lot like a pattern. "Did you know Farrell?" Nathan looked between Lilac and Angus. "Either of you?"

Lilac clearly answered, but without hearing, he was forced to tap the board to remind her to use it. [I eat my lunch in the park. Farrell used to sit near me. We traded recipes once. I] She broke off into excited chatter, before remembering. [I was supposed to bring him a tart the next day.]

Angus looked thoughtful. [We talked at the market a few times. He wanted to be vegan.]

"So it's a chain of people we were thinking about."

Henry looked at Lilac morosely and began talking. They withdrew to a corner. Angus wrote, [Who's next?]

Nathan swallowed heavily. "Duke. I'm going to stop it before that happens. It'll be three days before it gets him, though."

Angus shook his head. [Time is different. Dream time. Faster. Slower. Doesn't add up.]

Henry and Lilac had made it back to the group. He wrote, [I know I've been here days, but only needed to eat a couple of times, sleep once. Would swear two days max, if didn't know better.]

"I've got to try again. Now."

Henry blocked his path and Lilac pointed to the monster, waiting, watching from the road. Nathan froze. His stomach muscles and limbs ached with remembered pain from the earlier dreams. His body was afraid, and he couldn't will the feeling away. Having to even consider the potential pain was so foreign that it was throwing him off-kilter.

The monster would leave at some point. It had once already. It hadn't stayed gone long enough for him to make it to the bakery. Nathan wondered if it had been stalking Duke's dreams when it left. He'd wait, watch for it to go away again, and then get to the girl. 

Angus wrote, [Your Trouble changed in here.]

Nathan nodded. 

[Lilac's doesn't work either.]

That caught Nathan's interest. He'd thought the feeling/no sound thing was solely to make the nightmares worse for him, or had to do with how he could always feel in his dreams. He hadn't considered that it might be universal.

[I normally spread glitter on people when I touch them.]

"And now?" He realized that all the times that she and Henry had touched had been through clothing. 

She touched Henry's hand. Nothing obvious happened, but Henry's eyes were no longer focused on anything in particular. Nathan waved a hand in front of Henry's face. No reaction. 

Nathan looked at Lilac. "It blinds people?"

She released Henry's hand, and he rubbed his eyes, looking relieved. Lilac offered her hand to Nathan, but preserving his sight was too ingrained to take her offer. He shook his head and she pulled her hand back. 

Waiting galled him, but he had to admit that he'd never make it to the door of the bakery with the monster out there. He had an obligation to these people, too, and he'd seen how near they were to panic. He'd made Henry promise to not follow him out, if things went badly when he did try it, but he didn't believe the promise was genuine. 

He figured he had one more chance to attempt the run before Duke arrived. Of course, Duke never did things the way he should. Nathan had turned to accept a sandwich from Angus when he heard the pop of the monster disappearing. He pushed the sandwich back into Angus' hands and turned back to the door. The monster blinked back in with a loud pop before he got there. Duke lay in the middle of the street. The monster stood over him. 

Nathan grabbed the door handle, and had it partly open when he felt hard arms around his waist, and he was hauled off his feet and away from the door. He flailed against Henry's grip. Lilac screamed. Angus pushed hard on the door, shutting it just as the monster rushed it. It rammed the glass hard enough to rattle the entire store front again.

Nathan stopped struggling, and Henry cautiously released him. Nathan pressed up against the glass watching Duke. The monster seemed unsure of who to watch, and Duke made it to the bakery. He saw the girl motioning him inside. The monster rushed that way, and Nathan held his breath, hoping Duke made it. 

The bakery door closed in time and Nathan breathed a sigh of relief. The relief only lasted a second, though. He had to get in there, or the next time he saw Duke would be when the other monster dragged him out and the two of them shredded him. 

After a few seconds, the monster winked out again. "It's gone for its next victim, I'm making a run for it!"

Nathan darted out the door and no one stopped him this time. He was only a few feet from the door of the bakery‒close enough to see a monster up in Duke's face‒when the crushing grip of of a massive clawed hand closed around his neck. 

The monster lifted him off his feet and stalked to the middle of the street, to about the place where both he and Duke had appeared. It set him on his feet long enough to spin him around to face it. Nathan braced to make a run for it, but the clawed hand gripped him by the throat and lifted him up to its eye level. The malevolence in its eyes caused a jolt of fear that felt like ice had been dumped over his head. He was about to die.

It began laughing. It had been waiting for that recognition of impending death, for maximum fear, and that made Nathan angry. He suddenly found his will to fight again, and struggled for all he was worth. The monster let him. He never landed a blow. His hands and feet passed right through the monster's arms and legs. 

It shifted and tightened its grip on his neck and Nathan couldn't draw in air. His hands couldn't find purchase on the claws choking him, either, and in only a few seconds everything had started to fade out. His hands dropped to his sides. The monster changed its grip again, and Nathan was able to draw in a big gasp of air. 

Enough air that he was exquisitely aware of the moment that the monster's claw punctured his side. It slowly, slowly sliced across his stomach. He screamed with all the breath he had, until spots filled his vision again. It stopped. He could feel the hard edges of the claw still pushed through the skin near his belly button. It held him still like that until he had gotten used to the pain enough to catch his breath.

Then it continued. The claw dragged through his gut until it had made a line nearly all the way across. Then it threw him to the ground. He curled up around the wound. Nothing in his life had been like this. Blood soaked his shirt and covered his arms where he wrapped them over the injury. 

Nathan didn't know how long it had been when thought finally returned, but when it did, it brought the question of why had it not finished the job? He slowly, painfully dragged himself up to sitting, then to his knees. He couldn't straighten. The monster was between him and the hardware store, watching. Henry was in the window, watching. Nathan pulled himself to his feet, took a lurching step toward the sidewalk. 

The monster stalked toward him. If he could make it to the bakery, he and Duke could fix this. End it. The monster gave him a shove, sending him back to the pavement. It nudged him back into the middle of the street. 

Nathan saw Henry outside the hardware store, waving his arms. His mouth moving, probably shouting at the monster.

The monster's footsteps toward Henry were swift. Nathan took as deep a breath as he could and yelled, "No! stay inside! Don't come out here!" 

Henry made it back inside before the monster got to him. Nathan inched forward, toward the bakery. Henry had risked a lot coming out of the shop, he wasn't going to waste that. A solid weight pressed against his back, grinding the stomach wound against the ground. Nathan didn't even get a scream in before everything went dark.

He didn't expect to wake up, at least not to wake up in a body that still felt the agony in his gut. He couldn't see the monster, didn't know how long he had been unconscious, but he knew he needed to get to that bakery. He made it to his feet, and several steps forward before the monster appeared to backhand him back to the ground. 

It paced back and forth between him and the bakery for a long time. He huddled around the wound. There was so much blood. He was getting weaker, but he still tried to crawl forward when the monster disappeared. It stopped him. It stopped him every time he moved until the pain and blood loss kept him in place. He was going to die out here. He hadn't made the right choices, and now everyone had to depend on Duke.

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

 

 

Chapter 6

 

Duke rolled over looking for a more comfortable position. It drifted into his mind that there was no pillow and the bed was suddenly hard as a rock. _Damn it_. 

He opened his eyes trying to figure out where he was this time. The gloom and fog was still present, but he could see Rosemary's bakery and a few other shops from Main Street. Everything looked like it belonged in a post-apocalyptic story. He stood up. Lights were on in a few of the shops. That seemed more promising than standing out here in the open waiting for that demon to kill him again.

Duke heard a loud thump, and saw that the monster was near the hardware store. He moved tentatively at first, checking to see if the distance between him and the shops actually got smaller. When he saw that it did, he ran toward the sidewalk away from the monster, but still undecided on which store to go into.

The door to the bakery opened a sliver and a young, scared face peeked out. The girl glanced furtively up and down the street and then motioned him toward her frantically. "Hurry! Before it gets you! You'll be safe in here."

Duke recognized her as one of the first to disappear, but he couldn't recall her name. He shrugged, she had made it this long, she probably knew where the monster would and wouldn't go. As he got close to the door, he heard the rapid, heavy footsteps of the monster. The girl held the door open for him, and he darted in.

He peeked out the window at it. It paced back and forth in the road outside the bakery. 

"It won't come in here. It doesn't like the light."

The tinny sounds of a music box began. The hairs on the back of Duke's neck stood up and he slowly turned to take a good look at the room. The main area of the store had been changed completely. There were stuffed animals everywhere. The decor was decidedly more pink and lacy than it was outside the dream world. A tea party was set up at one table. A large dollhouse with a family of dolls was against one wall. An art table and a small swing rounded out the makeover. It looked eerily like all the stereotypes of a girl's playroom taken to an extreme.

The girl herself didn't match the decor at all. She looked to be about eleven. She was pale with lank black hair and a black flowing gown. The broad smile sent a sinking feeling to Duke's stomach, and he took a step back toward the door. The girl leeched on to his arm, and said, "Come play with me!"

Duke shook his head. "I don't think so. You've got to end this."

Her expression shifted as if a switch had been thrown. There was enough malice there to make Duke take another step back from the threat. "No. You're going to be my friend. You're going to play with me."

Duke tried to shrug free of her grasp, but she clung on doggedly. "Listen, kid‒" He stopped mid-sentence as another, smaller monster appeared behind the girl. All he could see of it's head at first was a wide open mouth. The bottom jaw had normal teeth, but the top was filled with row after row of sharp, pointed teeth. When it turned to look at the girl for a second, Duke saw that It had no noticeable nose and multiple eyes. It was ragged, wraith-like, with hands that ended in long talons. The arms and head appeared solid, but it floated behind her with no legs and nothing visible through the tattered rags that hung from its shoulders. 

 

[](http://s879.photobucket.com/user/spook_me/media/Spook%20Me%20Anything%20Goes/apparition_by_jflaxman-d6riyoa_zpsd7329e57.jpg.html)  


 

The girl shook his arm, and he wrenched his gaze from the monster back to her. When she saw she had his attention, she said imperiously, "Play with me!"

Duke's mouth had gone dry, but he tried swallowing anyway, then nodded.

Her expression was instantly back to scarily cheerful, and she pulled him over to the dollhouse. "Here, you can have the daddy doll. Here are his clothes." She pushed a small plastic wardrobe toward Duke. 

He looked dumbly between the doll, the wardrobe, the girl, and the monster. She was happily pulling the clothes off a few other dolls and redressing them. After she had finished the first one, she noticed that Duke hadn't moved. She frowned at him.

"You said you'd play. You have to do it right." The monster loomed over Duke as she spoke.

"I-I've never played with dolls before. I don't know how."

The monster snapped away from him as the girl laughed. "Don't know how? I thought everyone knew how to play with dolls! Watch me."

She pulled the clothes off another doll, narrating her actions. Then stopped, staring at Duke, waiting. He fumbled through removing the doll's clothes, and she narrated putting more on. After he had dressed the doll, she seemed to calm down. She started arranging the dolls, placing Duke's in a bed. 

Duke decided to venture into talking to her. "So what do I call you?"

"I'm Nona. This is my playroom. Look! Their breakfast is ready. Time for daddy to come down the stairs."

Duke complied, moving the doll down the stairs and to sit at the table. She moved the tiny dishes around, feeding them. He had her placed now. Nona Rutledge, fourteen. He checked her appearance again from the corner of his eye. She didn't at all look fourteen. "A friend of mine came here yesterday. He's tall, light brown hair, blue eyes. Did you see him?"

Her expression darkened again. "He wouldn't play with me." The monster growled again. "He wasn't nice at all."

"Yeah, he can be a real jerk sometimes, that guy." Duke swallowed the stomach acid trying to creep up his throat. Had Nathan been in the hardware store? Was he safe there?

The monster backed off a little, and Nona smiled again. "I'm so glad you aren't like that. You'll always be my friend, right?"

A quick glance at the monster, and Duke said, "Sure." It growled at him again, and he said, "Yeah, yes, so what do these guys do after breakfast?"

Duke thought maybe if he played along for a while that she'd be less prickly. After dolls, she demanded that he paint pictures with her. Only ones that had circle suns and fanciful beasts. He was getting pretty tired of her little games by the time she dragged him over to the tea party table. The way the monster had gone for the hardware store worried him. Even if Nathan had been inside, would he have the sense to stay inside? Building rapport with this kid was needed, but he couldn't keep from pushing it any longer. 

"So Mr. Rabbit, do you know what's been happening to people that don't play nice?"

"That's not how you do it! You ask things like, 'How do you do?' or 'It's lovely weather, don't you think?' Do it right!"

"You know. I don't think so. I don't want to play these games. I don't know you. You definitely don't know me." The monster zoomed right through the girl, and crowded into his face, but Duke risked continuing. "I thought you wanted to be friends. This is not how you treat a friend."

"But we're playing. That's what friends do."

Duke ignored the churning in his gut and leaned around the monster to look at the girl, hoping it wouldn't take that as an invitation to bite his head off. "Friends ask each other what they want to play."

"But I want to play tea party!" The monster actually backed off a little.

Duke turned sideways in the chair, theatrically crossing his arms and looking away. 

She crossed her arms, but said, "Fine. Fine. What do _you_ want to play?" 

"I want to go to sleep. Your monsters have kept me awake for two days."

She looked thoughtful for a minute, then brightened. "Slumber party?"

Duke groaned, but nodded agreement. He'd gotten her to cooperate a little. Now probably wasn't the time to push it. The girl excitedly pulled sleeping bags and a box of supplies out from behind the counter. Duke thought they hadn't been there before.

When she passed him a small tub of still frozen ice cream, he was sure of it. She threw pillows around the floor, and settled down with her ice cream.

Duke knew the girl in front of him was older than she looked. She'd been acting like a particularly spoiled five year old throughout all this, so he hadn't put much thought into how this might look to an outside observer. Now, though, in a more teen activity with her looking at him like _that_ , he was suddenly worried about what her parents would think if they found out.

He scooted back, putting a few more feet between them. Giving that nod when she said slumber party was the worst idea he'd ever had. He managed to get through it with fingernails and toenails painted by his own hands, and had managed to completely shut down her attempt at a pillow fight. She had refused to answer anything that mattered, and he wasn't sure he'd really made the rapport better with all the things he'd refused to do, because unbalanced teen girl. Just being here alone with her this long was worrying him.

He'd finally flopped over and pretended to be asleep. She'd had the monster get up in his face, growling, and even prodded him pretty viciously with her toes in his back at one point before she gave up and rolled up in her sleeping bag.

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

 

 

### Chapter 7

 

As she got sleepier, the monster faded out. When it disappeared, Duke shimmied out of the sleeping bag and went exploring. The back rooms of the bakery had been walled off. The only way out was the front door. Duke opened the door cautiously, wondering if the other monster went away when she slept. 

Nathan was curled up on his side in the street. The eerie no-source light glinted off a blood trail that stretched out behind him. Duke didn't give it thought, he just darted out the door. 

Duke skidded to his knees beside Nathan. "Nathan!" 

"No. No." Nathan shook his head and shifted away. 

"Open your eyes, Nathan. It's Duke."

Nathan still wouldn't look at him, and Duke finally remembered that in these dreams, Nathan couldn't hear, but _could_ feel. He gently tapped Nathan's cheek. 

Nathan finally opened his eyes. "Duke?"

Duke nodded and pointed off the street. Nathan shook his head and curled back up.

"We've got to get off the street, before that thing comes back." Duke moved behind Nathan and gripped him under the arms to pull him up. Nathan struggled at first, which Duke couldn't quite understand, but finally, Nathan seemed to register that he was being helped or at least gave up resisting and took his own weight. 

"Duke. The girl is the Troubled one." His words were slurring and if Duke hadn't been holding him he would have fallen back to the ground. 

The footsteps started up behind them, the way Nathan had come from. The only other place they could go was back to the bakery. Duke pulled Nathan's arm over his shoulder and held on to his waist. "Come on, Nate. Help me out here," Duke said, trying to pull Nathan along faster. 

They made it back to the bakery door. Nathan reached out to pull it open with his free arm, but gasped and hunched over further. Duke tightened his grip on Nathan's waist and pulled the door open. He edged Nathan through first. A rustling behind him was the only warning Duke got before a claw hooked through the back of his shirt. 

He had one hand on the door frame, the other wrapped around Nathan, and it anchored him just enough that when the monster yanked back it ripped through his shirt instead of pulling him to it. He stumbled through the door tangled up with Nathan, and they both headed to the floor. Duke did what he could to take the brunt of the impact. It still hit Nathan hard. 

Duke rolled up to his knees and gently shifted Nathan to lying on his back. It wasn't until he was thinking about how he could treat the wound with his Trouble that he realized that he was already covered with Nathan's blood, and it wasn't soaking in. He pulled Nathan's shirt up to reveal a slash across Nathan's stomach. Loops of Intestines protruded through. 

"Not real, not real, not real." But it looked real, the blood felt real, and the only way Nathan could wake up from this dream was by having a real life heart attack. "Gotta keep you alive in the dream, Nate. It's going to hurt."

Nathan gripped Duke's arm, and gave him a nod. He hadn't heard, but Duke thought he had understood. A spasm of pain swept over Nathan's features and he tried to curl up again. Duke held his shoulders down, trying to keep the wound from opening up further.

"Okay, Duke, you just took a first aid class, what do you do with this? Plastic wrap. Plastic wrap. It's a bakery. There's got to be plastic wrap somewhere." 

Nathan clutched at Duke's arms as he tried to stand. "I saw what she was before I got into the bakery. I could hear her." 

Duke nodded and firmly placed Nathan's back on the floor. He held up a hand in a stop motion, then a finger to say that he'd only be a minute. Behind the counter had taken less of a redecorating than the rest of the store. He breathed a sigh of relief. There was a large roll of plastic wrap and a canister of cleaning wipes.

Nathan looked calmer now, but that actually worried Duke more, because it was a spacy, almost vacant calm. Duke covered the wound with plastic wrap then pulled Nathan up to sitting and wrapped it all the way around his abdomen a few times. He wiped the worst of the blood off his hands. Then he grabbed the sleeping bag and some pillows, marveling that the girl was still asleep through all this, and did what he could to make Nathan more comfortable. 

"I really screwed up," Nathan said as Duke pulled the sleeping bag up around his shoulders. 

Duke shook his head, then remembered that there were drawing notebooks and crayons at the desk. He quickly retrieved those, and sat back down beside Nathan. [Only you could piss someone off this much the second you meet them.]

Nathan scoffed, then winced at the movement that caused. "This was from trying to rescue you. It got me when I left the hardware store."

[This kid is terrible. She knows what she's doing. Doesn't care.]

"And now we're trapped in here with her?"

[Somebody has to fix this Trouble.]

Nathan shifted and groaned. "You sure she knows everything?

[She refused to talk specifics, but she knows about the monster in here, and uses it. I'm ending this.]

"Duke, no! She's a kid."

[Who has killed five people. So far.] Duke held the note up and looked pointedly at the area of Nathan's wound. 

Nathan shook his head. "No."

"What's happening?" the voice sounded very young, younger than it should have. Duke turned slowly to find the toothy wraith monster nose to nose with him. Nona was in 'innocently oblivious' mode, and stood back from the bloody scene.

"What happened? I thought I heard another voice." Nona's voice trembled, and suddenly Duke wasn't entirely sure that the 'innocently oblivious' thing was one hundred percent an act.

Duke took a step forward, and the wraith floated back with him away from Nathan. 

"Is that...blood? You tried to leave, didn't you? I can't protect you outside!" The innocent look dropped away and her face contorted with anger. "You said you were my friend! You only pretended to like me!"

Duke held his hands up, trying to look non-threatening. "I went out to rescue him! He's hurt‒look at him." Nona called the wraith away, so she could see. Duke had only thought he'd seen her mad before. 

She lunged at Nathan. "You! This is your fault! You wouldn't play with me, and now you're trying to ruin my fun with this one!"

Duke caught her, stopping her from getting any closer to Nathan. That didn't stop the monster from floating right through both of them, though. Duke heard material tearing and then Nathan screaming. Nona tangled him up. It took several seconds to get free of her. Several seconds of tearing and screaming, and blood splatting on the wall beside him. He shoved the girl across the room as hard as he could and dove through the wraith, covering Nathan with his own body. 

The claws felt like fire as they raked across his back. He expected more, but it stopped after the first swipe. 

"Get away from him. You can still be my friend. We just have to get rid of _this_."

"Nathan. He has a name, Nona, and it's Nathan. The only way I'm moving is if you call that monster off him. You want me, that's fine. You're not getting me if you kill Nathan."

"He has to go! He can't stay in here. He's ruining everything! He's gotten blood all over the place. Somebody has got to clean that up before we can play again."

Duke wasn't sure how badly it had hurt Nathan. He looked down and found Nathan biting his lip to keep from screaming. He had gone pale and sweaty, and was gasping in shallow breaths through his nose.

"Okay, okay, it's gone."

Duke glanced around the room, and saw only a very sullen looking Nona, so he very carefully moved off of Nathan. 

Nathan's arm ended in a ragged stump above the wrist, blood was spurting out in time with his pulse. "Damn it!" Duke yanked his belt off as quickly as he could. He'd never been gladder that he'd gone to sleep in his clothes. He cinched it tightly around Nathan's upper arm and sighed with relief when the bleeding reduced to a slow ooze. "Not real, Duke. He's not going to wake up missing a hand."

Duke pulled his over shirt off and wrapped it snugly around the stump, then he looked for more wounds. He found that it had clawed Nathan's chest several times, though none looked like they had penetrated through his ribs. Taking his undershirt off dragged the material over the wounds on his own back, and he hissed at the unexpected pain. 

_Not going to be missing a hand, but the heart attack if he dies here will be real enough._ Duke put the shirt over Nathan's chest and pressed it down firmly. Nathan whined through his gritted teeth. "Sorry, bud‒" 

A small hand on his arm stopped him mid-sentence. "I made the monster go away. You have to play with me."

Duke grabbed her wrist in a bruising grip, and dragged her around beside him, and then down onto her knees. "Look at this! ' _Play with me. Play with me!_ ' You did this." Duke flipped the remains of the sleeping bag away from Nathan's stomach. "Take a good look, kid. You think anyone would want to play with you when you threaten them with _this_?" 

"It's not my fault! You're not supposed to go outside!" She started crying. "I don't like this." She turned her head away. 

Duke gave her arm a yank, turning her back toward Nathan. "Yeah, that's his guts held in with plastic wrap! And this!" Duke pointed to Nathan's arm that obviously ended short of his hand. "Or how about this?" He dragged her hand to the bloody mess of Nathan's chest. "You think I like this? You think he deserved this for not liking a monster like you?" He released her hand and went back to trying to stop the bleeding on Nathan's chest. She fell to the floor behind him, still bawling.

Nathan was staring up at him, eyes glued on Duke's mouth. A wave of remorse swept over Duke for exposing Nathan like that, using him to make a point. Duke pulled the shredded sleeping bag back up to Nathan's chest, and tried to project confidence in his expression. 

At best a one in three chance Nathan came out of it alive, if the Trouble sent him back like it had the others. He wouldn't play odds like those with his own life, and he couldn't accept them with Nathan's, either. Nathan was weakening quickly, and Duke knew no one could tell him it wasn't his fault, that Nathan was dead before he got there. He's say that to Audrey when it was all over and Nathan's heart didn't restart for her, but he was here now. He didn't get to hear that this time.

"Sick." Nathan managed to say seconds before he started gagging. 

Duke gently rolled him to the side and held him until it stopped. Duke started to lay him back down, but Nathan clung to him and shook his head. Duke pulled him to his chest. Nathan twisted so his ear ended up pressed to Duke's chest. Duke realized that like this, Nathan could feel the vibrations of him talking. 

"I'm going to pull your arm up above your heart, to help with the bleeding, and then I'm going to hold you tight, and you are not going to die on me. You got that?"

"It doesn't hurt so much now," Nathan murmured.

Duke choked back a sob. "That's good, Nate. That's good. just hang on. You can't leave now."

"Talk to me?"

The girl had stopped crying. Duke got a glimpse of her staring at them, mouth open. He kept his attention on talking for Nathan, keeping his voice steady, because he knew Nathan would feel it if it wasn't.

"You love him," she said after a couple of minutes. "Why would none of you care for me like that?"

"You can't force someone to love you. I can't pretend to feel like this about you. I don't even know you. You don't know me. You wouldn't even let me tell you my name, because you didn't care. All you cared about was threatening, scaring, bullying‒anything to get your own way."

"No!" The monster was back hulking in the corner of the room. "That's not what I was doing! I just wanted someone to care about me. I've been so, so alone, and nobody ever cared. No one! So I decided to _make_ people like me." The monster was closer, and Duke started planning the moves it would take to get Nathan shielded with the least pulling on his wounds.

He tried to keep that out of his voice, though. She was finally talking. "It doesn't work like that, kid."

"You don't understand! My parents don't even like me."

Duke rolled his eyes, then reminded himself that normal kids did worry about that. "That's what you really think?"

"I know it! No one ever sticks with me."

"Nona, kid, do you really let people like you?"

Her expression was caught between sullen and interested. "What do you mean?"

"You had Farrell‒the guy in boxer shorts," he elaborated at her look of confusion, "dragged out into the street for the other monster to get, didn't you? That's why it's there. Why you wanted Nathan back out there."

"People always let me down." she looked up at Duke with admiration. "But you came back."

Duke knew better than to say it was the only place away from the fog monster that he could get to with Nathan. "I did. You know, I recognized you, when I got here." 

Her face brightened with even that little bit of acknowledgement. "You did?"

"Your parents have put fliers up all over town. They've been searching the woods. Even after everyone else gave up." Duke noticed that the light outside was getting brighter. "They've convinced the Teagues to run articles in the paper. Your mom constantly looks like she's about to cry. Kid, your parents love you more than I've ever seen." 

The pink on the walls and the toys were fading out. The expression on her face was best described as awe-struck. Duke shook his head. The kid really hadn't believed her parents cared. 

"What is your name?"

"Duke Crocker."

Nathan shuddered, his muscles going tight. Nona darted over to them. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's not too late." She touched them both. Everything went dark before Duke could say anything else.

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

 

 

### Chapter 8

 

"Nathan!" Duke bolted upright, searching frantically. He spotted Nathan across the room through the table and chair legs. He scrambled over to him. Pulse, check. Breathing, check. Massive injuries, gone. He dragged Nathan up into a hug, expecting him to wake up from the movement and protest. When he didn't, Duke got worried. He could feel Nathan's chest rising and falling. He was breathing steadily.

"Nathan." He shook Nathan's shoulder. "Nathan, wake up!"

A small hand touched his shoulder. When Duke looked up, he found Nona standing only inches from him, and he flinched back. She didn't seem to notice, and said, "He's just tired. He's sleeping now."

"We're really back? You don't think this is another trick?" a woman said somewhere behind him.

"The light is normal outside," a man said.

"And the place doesn't look like it hasn't been cleaned in years. A few days maybe…"

"Hey! I'll have you know that I clean in here, everyday!" Duke said, especially indignant because the _Gull_ was cleaner than it had been in a long time.

The speakers moved into his line of sight, and he recognized Angus Doherty, Henry Morris, and Lilac Summer Storm. The three, besides Nona, that had still been unaccounted for when Nathan disappeared. A groggy looking Audrey stood up from behind the bar. Her hair was flattened on one side and standing up on the other. She'd kept her promise.

She quickly recognized the people in the room, all of them standing up and clearly not having a heart attack. Duke saw her scan over his and Nathan's heads and the disappointment when she didn't spot them. 

"Audrey."

Her gaze snapped to them. She gasped and ran over. "What happened? Is he...?"

"He's alive." He nodded toward Nona. "She says he's just tired."

Audrey stood up straighter and gave the girl an appraising look "You?"

Nona nodded morosely. 

"Can you call her parents? She needs to see them _now_."

Audrey nodded, then drew Nona back to the bar to call her parents. Duke knew he shouldn't keep holding Nathan. Angus in particular was giving him an odd look over it, but after what happened he needed to know Nathan was okay. He tried tapping Nathan's cheek, then shook his head at himself. Of course that wouldn't work here.

"Nathan. Nathan!"

Still nothing. Too much had happened lately, too many adrenaline rushes, too much stress, too little sleep, and Duke barely had control of the panic that was creeping up on him. When a heavy hand patted him on the back, he nearly jumped off the floor.

"Easy there. It's just Angus."

"Just a little jumpy, here."

"We couldn't get to him," the old man said sadly.

"What?"

Henry had also moved closer, guilt written all over his features. "We saw him pinned down in the road, but couldn't get to him for the monster. We‒I was too scared."

_How long had Nathan been out there_?

"It got worse inside, didn't it? We could hear the screams. It always let us hear." Angus' voice had roughened with emotion. Lilac was crying now, turning to Henry for comfort. 

Duke nodded. This kid had really messed up a lot of people, and it was pissing Duke off more and more that the only thing they could do about it was refer her to Claire and hope it didn't start up again. Duke looked at Nathan, still quiet and limp leaning against his chest. If it started again, would anyone be able to talk her down, or would someone‒him‒have to end the Trouble? How many people would have died if it hadn't targeted him and Nathan?

Duke held Nathan a little tighter. He didn't want to think about that possible future right now. He had plenty to worry about in the present. 

Angus shuffled a bit, like if he was unsure now would be a good time, but went ahead with, "Do you know what happened to Farrell Bishop?"

Audrey appeared, trailed by an anxious looking Nona. "He woke up the morning after it took Duke. Should make a full recovery." Duke noted that Lilac looked particularly relieved to hear that, though he wasn't sure he was getting the whole context. 

Audrey knelt beside him and Nathan. "Maybe I can wake him."

She took Nathan's hand, his hand that was there and not in the belly of a monster, and rubbed it between hers. Nathan moaned and tugged his hand back. She looked up at Duke, worry etching her features. Duke shook his head. He didn't want to go into it right now. Audrey tried patting Nathan's cheek, calling his name. He turned away, burying his face in Duke's shirts.

"What happened, Duke?" she hissed.

"It was bad, Audrey. He nearly died."

"Didn't you both die twice already in your dreams?"

"It hurt me, then did something that would kill me, but I woke up seconds before that happened. This was different. Slow. He would have showed up and had a heart attack if he had died. It was close, Audrey, so close."

Her lips thinned out to a line, but she didn't turn to glare at Nona. She put both hands on Nathan's face and said loudly, "Nathan! Wake up!"

He startled, his eyes rolling around wildly before fixing on Audrey. His breathing settled into a more normal rhythm. "Audrey?"

She leaned forward, touching their foreheads. "Yeah, Nathan."

He relaxed for a second, letting his eyes close again. Then seemed to realize their positions didn't compute, and pulled away from her enough to see where he was. He looked at Duke for a second and then pulled himself upright, out of Duke's grasp, but didn't move further away. Duke figured he'd take that as affectionate coming from Nathan. 

Nathan did a visual check, holding his hand up and wiggling his fingers, then peeking down his shirt. He nodded to Angus, Lilac, and Henry, shuddered when he spotted Nona, then turned back to Duke. "It's over?"

Duke smiled, and stopped himself from reaching out to touch Nathan again. "Yeah, everyone else is okay."

Nathan started to say something else, but stopped when vehicles began pulling up outside. Duke stood up and offered a hand to Nathan, who actually took it. He staggered before he made it all the way upright. Duke wasn't feeling too steady himself. He pushed Nathan toward the nearest chair, then pulled up a chair for himself.

Audrey unlocked the door, and a couple of uniformed officers and an EMT crew entered. Seconds later, the Rutledge's burst through the door, frantically looking for their daughter. 

Nona nearly tackled them with a hug. There were tears of joy and everything. Duke was having trouble really caring at the moment. Nathan had successfully waved the EMT's toward the other three returnees. They were reporting being tired, but otherwise good. Blood pressure and temperature checks were backing up those assertions, and they were cleared to get a ride home by the officers. Audrey slipped each of them one of Claire's cards before they left.

The EMT's took Nona to the far side of the room for an exam, and Audrey pulled the parents aside, explaining some of the situation. Duke heard bits of Audrey's opening salvo, "‒Nona is Troubled‒"

He missed the rest of that sentence, and subtly shifted so he could hear. Mrs. Rutledge was shaking her head in denial, but Mr. Rutledge was looking thoughtful. 

Mrs. Rutledge began hesitantly, "Nona has always had problems‒" Mr. Rutledge looked incredulous, and Mrs. Rutledge glared at her husband. "She has! She's always been a little immature and had trouble keeping friends, but lately, she's been pushing everyone away. Sabotaging the friendships she had, but I can't believe she meant to hurt" _Kill_ , Duke corrected mentally. "those people. She's just not like that! And this is a Trouble. We're not Troubled!"

"Estelle. It's her temper. You've seen it. We both have." Mr. Rutledge took his wife's hand gently. "My grandfather told me some stories when I was a kid, about a Trouble, but no one believed him. No one had seen it. He was just repeating something he'd been told." 

Mrs. Rutledge's expression fell. "All those people?" she asked, looking at Audrey, begging with her eyes for Audrey to deny it. 

Audrey nodded. "I'm afraid so. Here." She handed Mr. Rutledge one of Claire's cards. "Call her as soon as you get Nona settled for the night. Don't worry about the time, she'll be expecting you." 

Good. The sooner that got started the sooner Duke would feel a little more secure. At least, as secure as he ever could in Haven. 

"Who is Claire Callahan? What does she want with my daughter?" Mrs. Rutledge had made it to mother bear mode, and had a look in her eye that promised woe to any perceived threat. 

"She's a psychiatrist that works with the Troubled. She can help Nona, so this doesn't happen again."

"I'll call," Mr. Rutledge said. "We'll do whatever it takes to get her help and protect the town."

Nona came bounding back to her parents, and the joy of being reunited with their daughter lit up their faces again. A backward glance back at Audrey just before the father went through the door reassured Duke that they wouldn't let that blind them to what needed to be done. 

Nathan had sat through the whole thirty or so minutes of all this quietly, occasionally swaying in his chair. Duke wasn't letting him weasel out of a check-up. Apparently Audrey wasn't either, because she pointed the EMT's toward the table with a no-nonsense look on her face. 

Nathan made a token protest, but then gave it up. Duke figured that in itself was a sign that he needed to be checked out. After one EMT had taken Nathan's blood pressure, the other vectored in on Duke with the cuff. He sighed and held out his arm. 

They ended up declaring that Duke and Nathan showed signs of stress, but were absent any actual injuries or medical conditions, and a good meal and some sleep should fix them. Follow up with a doctor if they still had symptoms the next morning. 

Nathan was too zoned out to protest effectively as Duke and Audrey hauled up the stairs to her apartment . Or maybe he didn't mind as much as he said he did. Duke pulled his overshirt off and crawled into the bed. Audrey pushed Nathan into sitting on the edge of the bed. He shook his head. 

Audrey slid her hands up under his shirt, rubbing across his chest and stomach. "Just for tonight. We all need to know where everyone is."

Nathan glanced back at Duke. "No funny business while I'm asleep," he growled.

"Too tired to try anything, anyway, Nate."

Nathan nodded and rolled into the bed, with his back pressed up against Duke's chest. Audrey snuggled in against Nathan's chest. She hitched his shirt up and wrapped an arm around Nathan's waist. 

Duke couldn't resist adding, "I can't promise no funny business in the morning…"

Nathan grunted. "Maybe if you paint your nails again..."

The END

 

 


End file.
